Urbanspoon's most prolific contributor hails from Salem

Feb. 9, 2013

Salem's Chuck Bradley, the top contributor of restaurant reviews to Urbanspoon, looks at his Urbanspoon app on his cellphone at his favorite restaurant in town, China Gourmet. / Thomas Patterson / Statesman Journal

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Statesman Journal

Tips for reviewers

Chuck Bradley describes his approach: • Try to visit anonymously. • Check the bathrooms for cleanliness. • Note whether the ingredients seem fresh. • Try new things. • Include the server’s name if service is good. • Take photos to upload to the website. (Bradley doesn’t, but he’s a “technological Luddite” who wishes he had this skill, he said.) • Write 300 to 400 lively words telling diners what to expect. • Keep your ear to the ground to learn about new places.

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Fancy a night out for Chinese food? Pub grub? Mexican? Hot dogs?

You might want to check first with Chuck Bradley of Salem. He’s the all-time top contributor worldwide for Urbanspoon, a dining website with more than 3 million registered users.

As of Tuesday, Bradley had published 1,354 reviews on www.Urbanspoon.com. He reached that mark even though he doesn’t live in a city with hundreds of eateries to choose from. What’s more, he has been writing reviews only since 2010.

“I have no food training at all,” Bradley explained recently. “I know what lands pleasantly on the tongue, and that’s what guides me.”

Tops on his list

Bradley earned the site’s “prime” status in part because he does a review or two every day. He met me and photographer Tom Patterson over lunch in one of his favorite Salem spots, China Gourmet on North Broadway.

Bradley started with hot-and-sour soup, which he pronounced excellent.

“Hot-and-sour soup should be both hot and sour,” he said. “Often it’s just one.”

His eye lingered over udon noodles, his favorite menu item. In the interests of exploring new dishes, however, he ordered curried shrimp.

When the entree arrived, he pointed out the jasmine rice — “distinct and separate grains, not like a lot of fried rice in town.” He also praised the abundance of fresh, crunchy vegetables.

He tries to dine incognito, but that doesn’t always work out. He blames a “rookie mistake” — when he started on Urbanspoon, he used his own photo rather than mask his identity.

Sure enough, a plate of fish and vegetables arrived at the table, with the owner’s compliments. Bradley looked uncomfortable, but he dug in.

“Mr. Chang keyed onto me the second time I was here,” Bradley said. “He’s an astute businessman.”

That evening, Bradley would write a chatty account of the interview, the dishes everyone tasted and his continuing respect for the restaurant.

“They have, for the most part and wisely, eschewed excessive breading and deep-fat frying. I don’t think there’s a clunker in this entire menu. I haven’t tried everything (yet), but I have put a respectable dent in it,” he wrote.

Longing for barbecue

The reviews have been a hobby for Bradley, especially since his 2011 retirement. He sold insurance for 32 years, all but five of those with Prudential Real Estate Professionals.

He generally sticks to the Salem area, Corvallis, Albany and Woodburn. He prefers not to drive in Portland traffic.

Bradley’s favorite cuisine is barbecue, and he is underwhelmed by Salem’s offerings.

Patterson, working his way through a plate of spicy garlic-sauce chicken, suggests Podnah’s Pit in Northeast Portland. Bradley appears torn between desire and a vision of that city’s busy streets.

In pursuit of authentic Mexican cuisine, Bradley has sampled such challenging dishes as tripe and tongue.

“Some items have given me pause, but when I tried them, I found they were very good,” he said.

He approaches each meal expecting to be pleased. He figures that more than 80 percent of his reviews are positive.

“I’m probably not a useful critic to the critical,” he said.

He tries to get to new restaurants as soon as they open, granting some slack for first-day jitters.

“When they don’t have their ducks in a row, I revisit them later,” he said. “If they haven’t figured it out in three or four months, the gloves come off.”

His exalted status in the Urbanspoon world brings little besides professional pride. He gets to chat online with other top reviewers, but there’s no pay or gas money.

He freely admits to lacking foodie credentials beyond his passion for eating out.

“There is a place for professional criticism,” he said, “but if 20 reviewers share different views of a place, with different reasons, you can get a good idea of it before you walk in the door.”

Despite a grueling regimen of restaurant meals, Bradley has managed to keep his weight fairly steady. He generally dines out for lunch but eats lightly at home in the morning and evening. He works out three times a week, treading water for an hour at his gym.

His wife, Carol, doesn’t object to this hobby, he said: “She enjoys not having to cook dinner every night, which she did for years.”

She joins him at a restaurant about once a week. In the reviews, she is SWMBO, or “she who must be obeyed.” If he has dined alone, a high compliment is, “I’ll have to bring my bride here.”

The couple celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary last month — but no, they didn’t go out for dinner.

“We reminisced at home about our lives over the years,” said the man who knows every restaurant in the Mid-Valley. “It seems about one-third as long as it has actually been.”

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